April 2011 DVDs

When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living in America. It wasn’t exactly a New World, but an old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals, and causeways. But after Columbus set foot in the Americas, an endless wave of explorers, conquistadors, and settlers arrived, and with each of their ships came a Noah’s Ark of plants, animals, and disease.

Batman

A young boy who witnesses his parents’ murder grows up to become Batman, a masked and emotionally disturbed vigilante who battles against an arch-criminal known as The Joker.

Ali, is a small-town girl with a big voice who moves to the big city for her chance at stardom where she is enchanged by Burlesque, a glamorous nightclub packed with dancers, sizzling music, and an owner in need of a star.

AD 117: The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts led by revenge-hungry Pict Warrior Etain. When the Roman legion is ambushed, the seven surviving Romans pledge to rescue their leader and return to Rome to re-group.

Dreamcatcher

Four friends with an unusual power become stranded in a blizzard and are confronted by a deadly alien force. As they try to stop this unparalleled horror, the fate of the world is in their hands.

Due Date

Expectant first-time father Peter Highman looks forward to his new child’s due date five days away. As Peter hurries to catch a flight home from Atlanta to be at his wife’s side for the birth, his best intentions go completely awry. An encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay forces Peter to hitch a ride with Ethan on a cross-country trip that will ultimately destroy several cars, many friendships, and Peter’s last nerve.

After 10 years in prison, Driver has focused on one thing –hunting down the people responsible for brutally murdering his brother. Now a free man with a frightening purpose, he sets out to find and kill all those on his list. But there are two men who will do anything to stop him –a veteran cop and an egocentric hit man who finds his match in this worthy opponent. Now, the hunter is also the hunted.

Based on a true story, two brothers, against all the odds, come together to train for a historic title bout that has the power to reunite their fractured family and give their hard-luck town what it’s been waiting for –pride. Micky Ward is a struggling boxer long overshadowed by his older brother and trainer, Dicky, a local legend battling his own demons. Their explosive relationship threatens to take them both down, but the bond of blood may be their only chance for redemption.

Gasland

Filmmaker Josh Fox travels the United States along the Marcellus Shale formation to expose the negative environmental and health effects of fracture drilling as a means of extracting natural gas.

Felix Bush, a Tennessee hermit, is either feared or hated by most of the people that live in the town. One day, he gets the idea to throw one big bash before he kicks the bucket. While he is still alive and kickin’ he plans his very own rollicking funeral party.

Newlyweds Alex and Alice are hosting a New Year’s Eve party for their closest friends at a remote cabin in the mountains. The other couples arrive in various states of discord, and the tensions are compounded when Alice’s friends bring along a surprise guest–the very young and beautiful Helena. Alex and Alice try to keep the evening from spiraling out of control, and their own marriage from coming apart.

Hereafter

The lives of three people who are touched by death in different ways intersect.

Tania is a former teacher from Russia, living illegally in Belgium with her 14-year-old son, Ivan. One day, they are stopped on the street for a routine check by the police; Tania is arrested and placed in an immigration detention center for women, while Ivan manages to escape. Threatened with imminent deportation and fearful for Ivan’s fate, Tania embarks on a harrowing journey, determined to preserve her dignity and find her son. Short film : Rita. Rita, who is blind, shelters a boy after he suddenly breaks into her home. This enigmatic event allows Rita a brief moment of freedom.

Provided is an analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.

Free-spirited Maggie meets her match in a charming Viagra salesman named Jamie. Maggie and Jamie leap into a no-strings-attached affair, but no matter how hard they try to keep things ‘casual,’ they can’t help falling under the influence of the ultimate drug … love!

Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a murder she says she didn’t commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison.

The true story of one man’s struggle to survive against mountainous odds. Aron Ralston has a passion for all things outdoors. But when a falling boulder traps him in a remote Utah canyon, a thrill-seeker’s adventure becomes the challenge of a lifetime. Over the next five days, Ralston embarks on a remarkable personal journey in which he relies on the memories of family and friends, as well as his own courage and ingenuity, to turn adversity into triumph!

Frank is a former black-ops CIA agent living a quiet life alone, until the day a hit squad shows up to kill him. With his identity compromised, Frank reassembles his old team –Joe, Marvin, and Victoria, and sets out to prove that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Jack Mabry, a parole officer days away from retirement, is asked to review the case of Gerald ‘Stone’ Creeson, in prison for arson. Now eligible for early release, Stone needs to convince Jack he has reformed, but his attempts to influence the older man’s decision with his wife Lucetta have profound and unexpected effects on them both.

Kassie, a smart, fun-loving single woman, despite her neurotic best friend Wally’s objections, decides it’s time to have a baby –even if it means doing it herself, with a little help from a charming sperm donor. But, unbeknownst to her, Kassie’s plans go awry because of a last-minute switch that isn’t discovered until seven years later, when Wally gets acquainted with Kassie’s cute, though slightly neurotic, son.

Frank, a mild-mannered American on vacation in Venice, Italy, is befriended by Elise, a beautiful woman with a mysterious secret. Soon, their playful flirtations turns into a complicated web of dangerous deceit as they are chased by Interpol, the Italian police, and Russian hit men.

Trail of tears : Cherokee legacy: Documents the forced removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. Shows the suffering endured by the Cherokees as they lost their land and the difficult conditions they endured on the trail. Describes how thousands of Cherokees died during the Trail of Tears, nearly a quarter of the nation, including most of their children and elders.

Black Indians: Explores issues of racial identity between the mixed-descent peoples of both Native American and African American heritage. James Earl Jones is himself a Black Indian.

Native American healing in the 21st century: Learn from today’s respected physicians the crossover of ancient native remedies to present-day medical practices. Explore for healing plants and herbs. Learn from tribal elders traditional healing practices and philosophies. Discover the contents of a recently found 350-year-old medicine bag. Compare the similarities of Native American and Chinese healing.

Our spirits don’t speak English: Imagine you are a child, taken from your home, your family, taken from everything you know. In 1869, the U.S. government enacted a policy of educating Native American children in the ways of western society. By the late 1960’s, more than 100,000 had been forced to attend Indian Boarding School.

Provided is an engaging and inspiring look at public education in the United States. This documentary has helped launch a movement to achieve a real and lasting change through the compelling stories of five unforgettable students such as Emily, a Silicon Valley eighth-grader who is afraid of being labeled as unfit for college, and Francisco, a Bronx first-grader whose mom will do anything to give him a shot at a better life.

After her deadbeat father jumps bail and mysteriously disappears, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must find a way to track him down or she’ll be left without a home or custody of her two young siblings. To avoid losing everything, Ree must hack through the lies and threats looming everywhere in her rural town to piece together the dangerous truth about her father –without getting herself killed.